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EMARKS OF ELIHU ROOT ON UN- 
VEILING A MEMORIAL WINDOW TO 
THE HONORABLE JOHN HAY AT THE 
KENESETH ISRAEL, PHILADELPHIA, DE- 
CEMBER 2, 1906. ■§ ^ 9 ^ 






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d4 



REMARKS OF ELIHU ROOT ON UN- 
VEILING A MEMORIAL WINDOW TO 
THE HONORABLE JOHN HAY AT THE 
KENESETH ISRAEL, PHILADELPHIA, DE- 
CEMBER 2, 1906. '9 '9 '9 '9 






Bv Transfer 
AUG 3 1914 



Remarks of Elihu Root on unveiling a memorial 
window to the Honorable John Hay at The 
Keneseth Israel, Philadelphia, December 2, 
1906. 

Sometimes in John Hay^s later years, among 
the familiar White House scenes of his youth, 
some incident would evoke a memory of the 
earlier days and give it to his friends clad in 
the felicitous and charming expression of which 
he was a master. 

I remember that once, as we stood by the 
door of the old Cabinet room, he spoke of the 
dark and dreadful time when Lincoln was bear- 
ing the burden of the Civil War and was 
feeling his way among innumerable obstacles 
to his great conclusion of emancipation for the 
slave; and he told how the great President 
used often in the dead of night to gain relief 
from sleepless weariness by rising and seeking 
the chamber of the young assistai:tt private 

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secretary, and sitting on the edge of the boy's 
bed reading aloud to him from some favorite 
book. 

As the story was told we could see the 
tall, gaunt form in white pacing down the long 
corridor in which we stood, and the rugged, 
careworn face, seeking sympathy in thoughts 
that might lift his soul above the turmoil of 
the day's doubt and distress. 

Doubtless the cold words on the printed 
page lacked power to beat back the invading 
throng of troubling thoughts, and life was given 
them by the finely sensitive appreciation and 
responsive sympathy in the noble, ingenuous 
youth. 

The instinct of Lincoln's genius divined a 
kindred spirit; and there in the silent watches 
of the night and in daily companionship was 
molded and inspired the character of our 
friend. 

The youth grew in years and in authority. 
His power of intellect and of heart made him 
in his turn great among men. He lived the 
noble life and he fought the good fight as 
Lincoln would have wished; and through the 

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long series of the passing years the spirit of 
the great Emancipator — the strong, the just, the 
compassionate — has wrought mightily in the 
works of his great disciple, for justice and 
mercy and freedom and peace to the oppressed 
and forsaken of the earth. 

So, in this temple of our God, who hath 
made all men in His image, we unveil a 
memorial set up by grateful hands to the honor 
of one who also gave his life for his country 
and for humanity. 

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